ESSENDON coach James Hird has revealed he will make several changes to his team in a bid to halt its slide down the ladder.

Hird said there could be at least four changes for Saturday's clash with North Melbourne, with midfielders Heath Hocking and Brent Stanton, ruckman Tom Bellchambers, and Sam Lonergan likely to return.

''There's four guys who haven't played this weekend, and I think it's important with the shorter week and the break that we bring some fresh players in as well,'' Hird said in Perth.

''It hasn't been good [the past four weeks]. We'd hope to see a fair bit of improvement on Saturday against North Melbourne.''

Essendon held a recovery session at City Beach, in Perth, on Monday morning and returned to Melbourne MOnday afternoon, after its flight was delayed due to volcanic ash from the Chilean volcano.

Hird hoped the trip to Perth and the delayed return - due to volcanic ash from the Chilean volcano - would make the team stronger.

''We got to spend some time together as a group, done a good recovery session and we'll go home in a couple of hours. So it's turned out OK.

''We probably needed to do something a little bit different after three losses in a row. 'It was forced on us and it's been quite a good result for us.

"We would have loved to have gone home last night, but it hasn't been the worst thing for us."

Hird said the team's Tuesday training session would be pushed back a couple of hours, but the week would otherwise remain as planned.

He said Dustin Fletcher would also be available to face North Melbourne, despite a corked quad and a six-day turnaround.

"[His quad] looks to be fine; he was out jogging around [Monday morning]. It's bled a little bit, but we're very confident he'll play."

The coach was confident his side would improve after a disappointing start against Fremantle, which saw them slip 32 points behind at the first break. 

"Our first quarter was very disappointing," Hird said. "The second half was reasonably good from our boys, but you can't come inter-state and start like that and hope to be competitive.

"We're very confident that we're getting a couple of players back this week from injury and suspension.

"We're as confident that we can go back and perform well, whether that's good enough for a win we'll wait and see. "